What do you drive?

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, choffer said:

You weren't caught up in the M40 nonsense this morning were you?

I was staying in Brum last night. First time in years. Presumed it'd take me 90 minutes into Oxford this morning. Not a bit of it. Three and a half hours 

no I moved to germany  

Did a year at warwick uni then 2 years doing leisure centres in warwick and leamington, I was being lined up to spend a year working at brum airport, had the staff car park pass and everything, don't think I would have done it, the train was shit but it was better (and I could have made a profit on my expenses claim)

its just depressing and honestly **** you up, a 40 minute drive taking 90 twice a day every day puts a huge strain on your mental health and relationship, its hard to explain

[choffer]

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

no I moved to germany

Oh yeah. So you did. 

As you were, mein freund. 

[Xela]

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

...puts a huge strain on your mental health and relationship, its hard to explain

Absolutely. I stopped driving into work about 7 years ago as it was soul destroying. 

 

[tonyh29]

On 09/09/2019 at 10:51, lapal_fan said:

We take the piss, but @chrisp65 is absolutely right.  People need to chill out when driving.  The amount of people who "cruise" down the motorway at 85+ is crazy. 

I work with a bunch of mechanical engineers who drive anything from Merc A classes to Peugeot 308 convertibles, I see them sprint off the car park, stop for the first island, sprint round the island, to stop in traffic for the motorway junction, to sprint down the merging lane, to slow to down 60 when they get stuck behind a lorry, to sprinting off at 90+ until I lose them from sight after about 2 miles. 

I stick my cruise control at 70 mph once I've hit the motorway and rarely have to press a pedal until I get off the motorway, and I get home about 10 minutes later than they do.

They were even bragging with each other the other day that one of them got cut up by a BMW, so the other cut him up in return.

If that maneuver goes tits up, one of you is injured or dead, and 10,000 cars behind you are now going to be 2-6 hours home slower - so that's pretty hilarious innit? 

Meanwhile I only have to put £100 worth of diesel (I know..) whilst they're shoving £200 worth of petrol in a month, plus increase wear and tear. 

People are strange. 

Cars are meant to be fun though , I mean sure if I’m old and grey I’ll drive a Hyundai and tut at people who drive too fast or too close to me , but I’m young and want to enjoy my drive 

take tonight’s cinema trip to reading , journey there was  back end of rush hour so not a lot you can do but go with the flow and moan about people doing 30 in a 40 zone but coming back at 23:00 it was empty roads and a chance to push the car a bit and have an enjoyable drive... the car is outside now panting as it gets its breath back , and not one BMW was cut up ... 

[lapal_fan]

9 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

Cars are meant to be fun though , I mean sure if I’m old and grey I’ll drive a Hyundai and tut at people who drive too fast or too close to me , but I’m young and want to enjoy my drive 

take tonight’s cinema trip to reading , journey there was  back end of rush hour so not a lot you can do but go with the flow and moan about people doing 30 in a 40 zone but coming back at 23:00 it was empty roads and a chance to push the car a bit and have an enjoyable drive... the car is outside now panting as it gets its breath back , and not one BMW was cut up ... 

I just don't agree.

As you say, in times of heavier traffic, there's not much you can do speed wise, but you can eat space, be inconsiderate, impatient or rude to other drivers, for example, merge in-turns where donkey's think it's their right to squeeze 2 cars in, rather than just wait for 1 and go.  That happens frequently enough then you've got a back log of traffic thanks to 3 or 4 drivers.

The late night thing, I understand, but there are still lots of hazards on the road, even at 11 pm.  People walking, falling out of clubs, animals running around, it's dark so you can't see, you're probably a bit tired so your reactions are slower.  And if you're on the motorway, there's nothing around and you go 90+mph, I'd still say the risks of you losing control, aquaplaning, tyres bursting because of shit on the road.. one of those things happen at that speed and you're dead. 

I had to drive back from Luton to Bham on Friday morning at 00.45 am (via star city) & Sunday morning at 0.20 am, I just stuck my cruise on 72 mph and took my time because I had a car with 2 friends of mine who I wanted to get back to their kids safely. 

I just don't get speeding, the risk outweighs the fun. 

[tonyh29]

8 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

I just don't agree.

As you say, in times of heavier traffic, there's not much you can do speed wise, but you can eat space, be inconsiderate, impatient or rude to other drivers, for example, merge in-turns where donkey's think it's their right to squeeze 2 cars in, rather than just wait for 1 and go.  That happens frequently enough then you've got a back log of traffic thanks to 3 or 4 drivers.

The late night thing, I understand, but there are still lots of hazards on the road, even at 11 pm.  People walking, falling out of clubs, animals running around, it's dark so you can't see, you're probably a bit tired so your reactions are slower.  And if you're on the motorway, there's nothing around and you go 90+mph, I'd still say the risks of you losing control, aquaplaning, tyres bursting because of shit on the road.. one of those things happen at that speed and you're dead. 

I had to drive back from Luton to Bham on Friday morning at 00.45 am (via star city) & Sunday morning at 0.20 am, I just stuck my cruise on 72 mph and took my time because I had a car with 2 friends of mine who I wanted to get back to their kids safely. 

I just don't get speeding, the risk outweighs the fun. 

Studies show that cruise control reduces your reaction time and hampers your ability to change lanes safely ... its also  increases your chances of aquaplaning as if you hit a heavy wet area it would attempt to keep your speed at the constant you've set it for  ...   just saying 

 

 

[lapal_fan]

4 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Studies show that cruise control reduces your reaction time and hampers your ability to change lanes safely ... its also  increases your chances of aquaplaning as if you hit a heavy wet area it would attempt to keep your speed at the constant you've set it for  ...   just saying 

 

 

Yea I agree, my foots off the pedal, so any reaction time increases as I lift my fat hoof onto the pedal.  But at least the distance I covered wouldn't be as great if I mixed cruise control with extra speed  

[villa4europe]

I use cruise control for really long journeys, the average speed checks and driving on the continent, motorway im not too bad, I don't go to 90

but stuck at the lights etc my car does 0-60 in under 5 seconds, had it 2 years and I still cant help but smile when I get the chance to do it, sport mode, launch mode, foot down, the acceleration and the racket it makes cheers me up, driving 50mph round the centre of town does nothing for me, coming off an island and getting the chance to open it up...yeah I do that a lot

[lapal_fan]

11 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

I use cruise control for really long journeys, the average speed checks and driving on the continent, motorway im not too bad, I don't go to 90

but stuck at the lights etc my car does 0-60 in under 5 seconds, had it 2 years and I still cant help but smile when I get the chance to do it, sport mode, launch mode, foot down, the acceleration and the racket it makes cheers me up, driving 50mph round the centre of town does nothing for me, coming off an island and getting the chance to open it up...yeah I do that a lot

bye bye petrol/diesel. 

 

Hehe.. maybe not! 

Quote

Conventional wisdom says that jackrabbit starts consume more fuel. But it turns out that nursing your speed up to the limit too slowly also lowers mpg. How can that be? Cars get poorer fuel economy in lower gears, and accelerating too slowly prevents upshifting at an efficient rate. The best acceleration rate varies with the vehicle, gear ratios and weight. But in our testing we found that taking 15 seconds to accelerate to 50 mph used less fuel than taking 30 seconds to reach the same speed, because the car entered its top, fuel-saving gear sooner.

  This is interesting;

Since the power required to overcome aerodynamic drag is a function of the velocity cubed (in other words, it shoots up quickly), a car's jump from 40 to 60 mph requires less fuel than the increase from 60 to 80 mph. (As the graph above shows, the hit to fuel efficiency is roughly twice as severe in the higher range.) So go slower, right? Well, yeah, but fuel efficiency isn't the only thing that matters. Some studies suggest that the old 55-mph limit saved fuel but cost us more in terms of lost work hours. Then there's safety: Going 55 mph when traffic is cruising at 70 can be dangerous to everyone. Just don't go 80. That will drain your tank quickly—and the costs add up if you also have to pay for a speeding ticket.

Source;

https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a6827/6-driving-tactics-to-save-gas-this-weekend/

Edited October 16, 2019 by lapal_fan

[tonyh29]

 

13 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

the racket it makes

Talking of which  ..I dropped the boy off at the station this morning and on my journey back home I pass the McClaren tech centre  , traffic was a bit slow so i let this car in at the roundabout that was leaving their complex ,   even though my instinct was anyone that drives a bright blue sportscar is a bit of a rocket polisher and doesn't deserve to be let in . The back of the car had all the duct tape over it that they do to hide the lines on prototypes , but you could see a fair bit of the engine workings through the vents and holy crap did it make some noise when he kindly put his foot down and zoomed off ( before having to stop in the traffic 20 feet later )

Edited October 16, 2019 by tonyh29

[villa4europe]

15 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

bye bye petrol/diesel. 

I consider 35 to the gallon a good day...short trips around town don't break 30

@tonyh29 I honestly still wind down the windows in tunnels, just little things like making noise and accelerating to break up boring journeys, spotify only does so much and I knocked eating in the car on the head, im not a petrol head or lewis Hamilton wannabe its just for my own sanity, what is interesting is the notion that I do things like that to break up the monotony so im actually paying more attention

[chrisp65]

People will change, just some have more difficulty adjusting out of old fashioned ways of thinking and their long encouraged lack of empathy.

Speeding is anti social and it puts other people at increased risk. That makes speeding an absolute dick move.

 

[TheMelvillan]

On 16/10/2019 at 09:39, villa4europe said:

I use cruise control for really long journeys, the average speed checks and driving on the continent, motorway im not too bad, I don't go to 90

but stuck at the lights etc my car does 0-60 in under 5 seconds, had it 2 years and I still cant help but smile when I get the chance to do it, sport mode, launch mode, foot down, the acceleration and the racket it makes cheers me up, driving 50mph round the centre of town does nothing for me, coming off an island and getting the chance to open it up...yeah I do that a lot

yep. i've always been of the opinion that acceleration is more fun than out and out speed. So whilst I don't tend to speed, I to tend to get up to speed as quickly as possible (When safe to do so obv)

[chrisp65]

This week’s random rental: Hyundai Tuscan (or Toucan or Tucson or something), like a 2WD fake SUV thing, petrol, automatic.

Possibly the most average car on the road. Though it was a good comparison with the Jag E Pace from a couple of weeks ago in that I did the exact same route, same times of day. From memory Jag needed £120 put in the tank, the Toucsan took £72.

Plus point: I can see why people like sitting up high in that style of car.

Minus point: first car I’ve had in ages that actually needed a key in the ignition. Every **** time I sat in that thing the key was in my pocket.

[Genie]

1 hour ago, chrisp65 said:

This week’s random rental: Hyundai Tuscan (or Toucan or Tucson or something), like a 2WD fake SUV thing, petrol, automatic.

Possibly the most average car on the road. Though it was a good comparison with the Jag E Pace from a couple of weeks ago in that I did the exact same route, same times of day. From memory Jag needed £120 put in the tank, the Toucsan took £72.

Plus point: I can see why people like sitting up high in that style of car.

Minus point: first car I’ve had in ages that actually needed a key in the ignition. Every **** time I sat in that thing the key was in my pocket.

How many miles was it? £72 versus £120 is a huge difference!

[chrisp65]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

How many miles was it? £72 versus £120 is a huge difference!

In crude round numbers, it’s just over 500 miles (Cardiff / Swansea / Bromsgrove / Bearwood / Manchester / Bromsgrove / Cardiff) so neither of them have exactly covered themselves in glory.

Again, in big round clunky numbers I mental math’d it as Jag was mid / high 20’s mpg and Toucan was mid / high 30’s mpg.

Now, in that there’s some bad town traffic and some congestion, but there’s also mile after mile of 50mph average speed cameras which should, I’d have expected, help give them respectable figures.

Perhaps I was driving around with the handbrake on in the Jag!

To be totally nerdy / honest another factor, is the Hyundai did the whole trip on a single tank, which meant I filled it up in Morrisons. The Jag, that couldn’t make the whole trip on a single tank and I had to buy some get me home petrol in a motorway services. Which is slightly more expensive per gallon than a single malt.

[V01]

49 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

In crude round numbers, it’s just over 500 miles

You should have walked

[chrisp65]

20 minutes ago, V01 said:

You should have walked

Through Manchester?

My mum bought me this watch.

[Genie]

8 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

In crude round numbers, it’s just over 500 miles (Cardiff / Swansea / Bromsgrove / Bearwood / Manchester / Bromsgrove / Cardiff) so neither of them have exactly covered themselves in glory.

Again, in big round clunky numbers I mental math’d it as Jag was mid / high 20’s mpg and Toucan was mid / high 30’s mpg.

Now, in that there’s some bad town traffic and some congestion, but there’s also mile after mile of 50mph average speed cameras which should, I’d have expected, help give them respectable figures.

Perhaps I was driving around with the handbrake on in the Jag!

To be totally nerdy / honest another factor, is the Hyundai did the whole trip on a single tank, which meant I filled it up in Morrisons. The Jag, that couldn’t make the whole trip on a single tank and I had to buy some get me home petrol in a motorway services. Which is slightly more expensive per gallon than a single malt.

I've driven a lot of E-Paces (and the sister cars Evoque and LR Disco Sport) and generally get 34-36mpg on my 95% motorway commute. I could see how that would fall sharply with a bit of traffic or town driving. My Kuga does about 45mpg which I thought isn't great, but then much better than a lot of other 2L Diesel cars of the same size.

[Xela]

Saw one of the new Rolls Royce SUV's yesterday. Looked horrible. "From £264,000..."

If I had millions in the bank i wouldn't spend that much on a car that looked like a hackney carriage. 

It was going into the Four Oaks estate, so on its way home! Bizarrely, 3 cars behind was a Lambo Urus in neon green. Another abomination.